Fruitvale Station- Up Close and Personal Look at Police Brutality

Fruitvale Station, is a 2013 American biographical drama, written and directed by Ryan Coogler. This film is based on the real life events that lead to the death of Oscar Grant, a 22 year old man who was shot by a BART police officer, Johannes Mehserle, at the Fruitvale Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Station in Oakland, California in 2009 on New Years Day.

Michael B. Jordan stars as Oscar Grant.

The film debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and it won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film. It was also screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best First Film.

This film created an up close and personal look at police brutality and it was brutal, it included actual live footage from the event which added to the mood it set. It was, to me a very emotional film, to already know the outcome and even worse that it is based on real life events. Police brutality has always been a problem but it seems to have garnered more attention and now it's become a big controversy, causing peaceful protests to raging riots where even more lives are put in jeopardy due to the police on standby.

After seeing this film and watching the news and media, I have to wonder are police even qualified to well, be police? They have a duty to serve and protect but it seems lately that many more of them are doing more harm than good and some are even corrupt. This is cause for major concern. They are supposed to be who you call for help, but what if they are the ones doing the hurting? Who do you turn to then?

This is a major problem in our society, in many societies and this film definitely shed light on it in a heart-breaking way, because Oscar Grant was just one of many victims of police brutality.

He was lucky that we live in the times that we do now with cell phones and cameras, and that his perpetrators were caught on film by many, there was proof. Had it happened a decade earlier there would have been no photographic evidence of what those police officers had done and he might have never gotten the justice he or his family deserved.

Fruitvale Station, was an emotional film that caused me inner turmoil from start to finish. It is heartbreaking that situations like Oscar’s occur everyday and have only begun to get the justice and recognition they deserve. I admired this film for it’s hard topic and being able to shed light on the sensitivity of the situation.